Just a few quotes taken from an interesting Tarver article in the May 1996 issue of Boxing Monthly: Tarver recalls the fight well (amateur fight with Roy Jones Jr). "As I remember," he says, "the first round I won clearly. At that age (Tarver was 13, and had run up a 32-2 record) I had never been tested in any way. I didn't have any competition. I was State champion at that time and I was just overpowering most of my opponents. He was the first to test me. In the first round, I had no respect for him and I took it to him. The second round was more competitive and I could see he had a lot of skill. In the end he won a close decision." Soon after this, Tarver's family moved to Orlando where the nearest gym was 25 miles away, so the young Tarver took to other sports and pursuits leaving his undoubted boxing talent in the locker room. That is until Jones cropped up once more in Tarver's life, this time to inspire him. "When I saw him make it all the way to the Olympics in Seoul in '88, and seeing that terrible, disputed decision he lost in the final, something hit me," says Tarver. "He re-inspired me to pursue my boxing career....I can remember getting off that couch and running three miles as soon as the fight was finished." Tarver's tangle with Jones dates him somewhat for a 1996 Olympian. It makes him 27. Shouldn't he have turned pro by now? "Listen," he says earnestly. "Going to the Olympics is a chance of a lifetime for anybody at any age. I would never pass it up. Knowing boxing as I do, I knew the opportunity as a professional wouldn't be there for me unless I had a very good, a great amateur career. Hey I didn't want to be just another black fighter. Anybody can do that. We can all put on a pair of gloves and swing it out. But I wanted to be something exceptional. I had, and I have, dreams of becoming a world champion." Since his loss to Roy Jones in the amateurs, he has only lost 4 more times and compiled an astonishing 130-7 amateur record and looks ahead to the Olympics as he tries to capture the gold medal which he has been tipped to win. Discuss, and feel free to discuss anything about his pro career :good
Nice find Kos, still find him to be a loud mouth tit and it disappoints me Woods didn't take it too him :-(
Yeah, it was disappointing the Woods fight - staying up to watch that one at 4am as well didn't help :verysad Also, if people want me to, I will start posting some more older articles on here (get a little bit of nostalgia around here :yep) - I was thinking of posting a Jon Thaxton one (coincidentally from the same issue as the Tarver interview) as a little tribute to him :good
Good read, he really did always have his eyes set on Jones. I guess his career hasn't made him an ATG, but he certainly achieved everything he said he would do, right now he should probably retire. The Thaxton article would be good, cheers pal. Was a pretty bad stoppage but either way, he was gonna get stopped IMO.
I've always liked Tarver. I found it interesting that during the Tarver-Jones trilogy, Tarver always characterised Jones a country-bumpkin type, and presented himself as the urbane, sophisticated gentleman. Tarver-Jones 2 was one of the most surprising moment in boxing history, seeing it live at the time it must have been incredible.
